In my last post I shared a video (view resources below) that illustrated a dramatic shift in Marketing Reality, and the ensuing struggle that has erupted from too many (indistinguishable) brands, plus the rapid rise of social media squarely hitting an impervious wall of mature and rather brand-skeptic consumers.

The challenge it posed was: “How can we find new ways to get people engaged again in products, advertising and in brands.”

So exactly what is Engagement Marketing?

In an interview with Henry Jenkins DeFlorz, Professor of Humanities and Founder and Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT, brand guru Alan Moore said...

“Engagement Marketing is a very broad term, and purposefully so. At its heart is the insight that human beings are highly social animals, and have an innate need to communicate and interact. Therefore, any engagement marketing initiative must allow for two-way flows of information and communication… We have always had community. Pre- industrialization, we were tied to our communities by geography, tradition, the state and birthright. External forces shaped our identity. However, in a post-modern world we can have many selves, as we undertake a quest for self identity.

“The Community Generation seeks and expects direct participation and influence. They possess the skills to lead, confer and discuss. These people are not watching television and have grown up in a world of search and two-way flows of communication.

Engagement Marketing is built upon the fundamental notion of shared experience, something which “interruptive” communications cannot do.

So how do you measure customer value, share of customer and customer engagement, when your customers are making brand decisions across a myriad of touch points?

We are used to tracking web traffic, purchases via phone, web and retail locations. Add into that reviews in sites like Yelp, Facebook fan activity, LinkedIn updates, Tweets — good and bad, blog content, RSS content, mobile activity. Every day there are new apps like Foursquare (a location service-based social network/game. What it does is tell you where your friends are and adds a little fun to going out in the evening) and Chat roulette (exactly where is that going?).

In my third (and I promise — last) post, I’ll try and explore what needs to be measured and who is attempting to create the apps that will help you harness it all!

Do More With Your Data.

SIGMA Marketing Insights is a boutique marketing services firm obsessed with the customer experience, and driven to turn data into a powerful tool that will deliver more relevant, personalized interaction and engagement across all channels.